Tempo Changes

[53Crëw]

Do many of you guys do tempo changes in songs? I'm not talking about doubling or halving the tempo, but varying the tempo +/- 5bpm or whatever to make things more dynamic.

When mapping out the tempo changes for the song, I'm assuming it's best to make the changes gradual? i.e. ramp up or down over the course of a few measures? Or do you just enter the different tempos on the first beat of each part? for example intro is 118 bpm and then on the first beat of the verse enter 122 for the tempo and just let it pick up tempo immediately/abruptly? Not sure if that would sound too unnatural, though.

What do you guys do?

Cheers.

 

[Nectar-and-Fuel]

I change time signature and tempo constantly within songs. I use the first method you mentioned (over measures) for changing tempos - it won't sound too abrupt or unnatural as long as the playing is tight. Sometimes I'll make the drums speed up right before the tempo change to sort of push it along into the next tempo.

 

[Harry Hughes]

As long as you're well rehearsed with your material, you will be able to pull off abrupt tempo changes, so I wouldn't be too worried.

 

[crosstalk]

I've always used the abrupt method even when doing like 40bpm jumps.

Reaper has a feature that lets you choose to "gradually transition tempo to next marker." So a few measures before the tempo change you can place another tempo marker and choose the gradual setting for it. This smoothly increases/decreases the tempo from A to B.

Haven't used it myself, but it could be cool.

 

[53Crëw]

Thanks for the comments, guys!

 

[chdrummer]

yep i do tempo changes all the time! if it sounds too abrupt just do a gradual slow down in tempo.

 

[DanLights]

I've done it just abruptly, with changes from 80 to 100, 100 to 120 and stuff like that, no big deal, almost not even noticeable to my ears, it subconsciously gives the song a sudden boost in energy, like it's coming to life more than before

 

[exoslime]

i do often very slight tempo changes

like
intro: 118
verse: 119,5
chorus, 121
verse 2, 120
chorus 2 122

etc

of course this involves alot of retracking parts and you cannot "copy/paste" but i think it gives a more natural "flow" to the song

 

[DanLights]

i do often very slight tempo changes

like
intro: 118
verse: 119,5
chorus, 121
verse 2, 120
chorus 2 122

etc

of course this involves alot of retracking parts and you cannot "copy/paste" but i think it gives a more natural "flow" to the song

hmm, never thought of that. Sounds like it would work nice for a very "loose" type of music, to give it a more natural feel but not being retardedly out of tempo or anything

 

[53Crëw]

I came across an article on tempo at sound on sound if anyone else is interested in reading it.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Nov02/articles/tempoworkshop1102.asp

In some of their examples, they show the tempo not only changing at certain points, but ramping up or down slowly through the verse and chorus, etc. I think I'll give this a try.

 

[53Crëw]

One thing I stumbled upon when using sloping tempo changes... If you have delay plugins slaved to the tempo for delay times, it can cause pops or clicks in the tracks with delay as it tails off and changes tempo. In this case, if you change the delay time to "manual" mode and just set the delay value, the problem goes away.

 

[KKuff]

I came across an article on tempo at sound on sound if anyone else is interested in reading it.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Nov02/articles/tempoworkshop1102.asp

In some of their examples, they show the tempo not only changing at certain points, but ramping up or down slowly through the verse and chorus, etc. I think I'll give this a try.

This is pretty interesting. Usually I only change the tempo when I want a dramatic tempo change to be noticed. Does anyone think varying the tempo a few bpm at a time for different sections like this would work well for metal? OR maybe more for other types of music that don't need to be as tight?

 

[53Crëw]

My thought is that it may not be desirable for tight technical metal stuff. But for some melodic type stuff where you want more "feel" and more of a dynamic song it seems like it would be cool.

 

[DanLights]

nice article crew, interesting stuff

 

[Moonlight_Seeker]

The person who wrote that article also says :

Well, you could write less repetitive songs — but repetition is in the nature of pop music, and often for good reasons. So what is it that allows a live band to hold your attention even when they're playing one riff for 64 bars? The usual answer is that minute variations in the timing and dynamics of each player's performance make each measure slightly different, and that this somehow keeps it fresh as the song progresses (or doesn't progress!).

My songs don't have a repeating riff for 64 bars.

The person seems to be explaining how to make an all-midi song become more human.